Ultrasound and Amnio

At this point we have had an ultrasound at 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks, 13 weeks and 4 days, and now at 15 weeks and 2 days. This baby might be the most photographed baby in the world. What we never expected was that this day in our life that everything would change.

The ultrasound first started with the technician looking at all aspects of the baby. If she saw anything alarming, she didn’t share with us .The doctor then came in started to navigate her way around the baby as well. She noticed something did not look right with the nose. To the naked eye it appeared very large. I my mind it looked almost like a rounded bird beck. I knew something wasn’t right. The doctor decided to perform a 3D ultrasound to get a better look.

The result of the 3D ultrasound was one of the two images I wish I could get out of my mind. Looking at the baby from the front profile was quite disturbing. Something was absolutely not right with the nose and mouth. It very well could have been a cleft palate but it was too hard to really determine exactly what it was at this point in time. I this point my heart started to race. I knew things were not looking great for the diagnosis.

At this point we definitely wanted to proceed with the amnio. As the doctor and ultrasound tech prepared for the test I was just ready to have this procedure over. I knew it was going to consist of a large needle being inserted into my stomach and probably some intense cramping. I was nervous but knew this was something I would have to just get through. Just like everything else thus far in our journey of creating a family.

I had decided that I did not want to see anything that went on during the procedure so I placed the scarf I wore that day over my face and just tried to control my breathing to help myself relax. My husband has prior experience with fainting after giving blood and was unable to watch me give myself shots during fertility treatments so he decided to turn his chair towards the corner until the procedure was over.

The second image I think I will vividly recall for a lifetime is what we saw after the procedure was done. The doctor needed to monitor the baby’s heart rate and movement to make sure nothing occurred during the procedure. While this was happening we got a closer look of the hands. They were not clenched but there indeed were extra fingers on each hand. In between the intense cramping from the procedure and the new found soft marker that was discovered I was not feeling well. As soon as the doctor felt the room I fell to tears. I was in so much pain physically and emotionally.  We knew the possibility of the baby having trisomy 13 was unfortunately very likely at this point.

Once we were done at the hospital I was very glad my husband and I had driven together. I don’t think I would have been able to drive home solo with the pain I was in. We hadn’t eaten any lunch so we stopped to get some food on the way home. We spent the rest of the night hanging out and resting. I of course did a lot of googling and thinking about all the what ifs moving forward.